


A Lover's Dream

by agentsimmons



Category: Cinderella (1950)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 20:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2322755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cinderella wonders if she'll wake up yet again to find the ball nothing more than a dream. Inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella - especially the Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful sequence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lover's Dream

"I've never met anyone like you before," Prince Charming gazed at her with stars in his eyes as they rested on a bench in the extensive palace gardens. 

"I would believe you, but you don't know anything about me," she was caught up in the moment as well and was certain it was love or something like it, but her world was still as an indentured servant in her own home and the miracle of her being here with him could only last so long. 

"True," he admitted with a nod. "But I want to. I want to know everything about you and that, at least, is a feeling I've never felt before. I didn't even want to be here tonight," he confided. "I thought the idea of a prince being paraded by eligible women a little old fashioned and nonsensical."

"I'm sure there are good reasons for it," Cinderella responded graciously, not realizing he was speaking of himself.

"I suppose," he thought for a moment. "But now I see it must have been fate for otherwise I wouldn't have met you. It's strange, but I can't remember what my life was like before the moment I saw you." His confession was so heartfelt that it shone through his eyes and the giddy smile on his face.

Cinderella stared at him for a moment. "It is strange," she started with a tremble, "and absolutely terrifying," she finished with a nervous laugh as he took her hands into his and squeezed them gently. "I've dreamt of love for so long, but it's terrifying to think it could be as simple as meeting someone, but not knowing anything about them and still knowing how you feel. It's terrifying to think of how they might feel," there was sorrow in her voice from years of feeling betrayed and abandoned. 

"Oh, but I feel the same way," he responded eagerly.

"But maybe that's the most frightening thing of all," she said quickly. "I've dreamed for so long. What if this is only a dream too? What if dawn is breaking and the clock is standing by to take you away?" 

He could tell that she was quite serious and he wondered at how deeply she must have been hurt by someone or something to make her dream of something better and fear it being stolen by waking. "This isn't a dream," he reassured her. "It can't be. I never could have dreamed of you on my own." She blushed and he stroked her hands with his thumbs. "You're so much like an angel that you must be real and heaven itself must have sent you to me. There's not enough good in me for you to be a phantom of my imagination," he hung his head a little, feeling ashamed of his reckless, ungrateful youth for the first time in quite a while.

"But I could have dreamed of you," she smiled with knowing eyes as she pointed out the fallacy of his logic.

He laughed. "I guess you could have at that," he stood, keeping her hands in his. "But if you did then please don't wake up too soon. If the clock does strike then let it clamor all it wants, but don't listen. Keep me here with you in this dream as long as you can."

She gave a soft laugh at his request, endeared all the more to him, but inside her heart quivered. If only it were possible. Dream or no dream, she would have to wake up with the strike of the clock at dawn or at midnight. She couldn't keep him no matter how wonderful it felt as he pulled her up into his arms for another dance beneath the stars. Sooner or later she would be pulled from her reverie, but for now they were still together and the dream was still alive.


End file.
